Bill Watson and I (joined briefly by Willie D'Anna and Dave Gordon) went to the Buffalo/Fort Erie area today at the mouth of the Niagara River hoping to catch some of the birds blown into the area by the strong WSW winds out over Lake Erie. Things looked interesting, although disconsolate when we pulled into the parking lot at the base of the Bird Island Pier (south end of Squaw Island) and found a freshly deceased (<3 hrs.) juvenile SABINE'S GULL next to one of the parked cars in the lot. Talk with one of the fishermen confirmed that it had perished just recently; I plan on giving it a final resting place amongst the collection at Cornell University. In the meantime, thousands (est. 3500) of Bonaparte's Gulls were milling about in the winds, with the largest concentrations being at Nichol's Marina in Fort Erie, and on both the US and CA sides near the International Railroad Bridge. We looked around from the base of the pier for a while, eventually deciding not to attract any news groups by walking all the way out to the pier (waves were crashing over) even though it looked tempting, and stayed in the car and waited out the worst of the weather for the time being. At about 1:00 p.m. a juv. SABINE'S GULL flew by close heading upriver into the strong wind, and milled about for some time high above the water eventually heading towards Fort Erie where I lost it due to the driving hail. We then got back onto the mainland and crossed the north Squaw Island bridge to check the north side of the island. After scanning through the Bonaparte's, we picked up a probable RED PHALAROPE flying and drifting about mid-river not far from the Bonies. The driving rain made it near impossible to stay on it for some time, and at the very least confirm it as a Red. After initially loosing it, we could no longer refined it despite searching for the next half hour. Also here with the Bonaparte's across the river (CA) was an adult LITTLE GULL, and near the wastewater treatment plant on the island were 2 SNOW BUNTINGS. We then crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada and first checked Nichol's Marina and then the railroad bridge. Nothing notable at the first check of Nichol's Marina, and no luck re-locating the phalarope at the railroad bridge, although present was a female BLACK SCOTER flying upriver and a HORNED GREBE. We then went back to Nichol's Marina and found a nice and close juv. BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE resting amongst the Bonies on the water. Also flying around briefly for a short time was a juv. COMMON TERN. A brief check south of the Peace Bridge in the failing light showed thousands of Bufflehead out in the rough current, and then back to Nichol's Marina where the Kittiwake was still present for a brief time, along with an adult LITTLE GULL. Jim Pawlicki Amherst, NY Fort Erie is located at the mouth of the Niagara River at Lake Erie and easily accessed from the Niagara Parkway from the north and QEW from the west.
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